While oddsmakers in Washington are busy plugging names into boxes for the new administration, President-elect Trump is blowing up those boxes in ways that could cause aftershocks in the nation’s capital that reverberate across the country.
Why are we thinking about filling thousands of positions in a system that has failed the people? Election Day was a referendum on business and politics as usual. A political outsider, allied to no one, is coming to Washington, and opportunity for a renewed focus on cooperative-federalism is very real.
During the Obama administration, cooperative federalism came to mean that, by decree or fiat, states were forced into compliance with ill-thought, expensive federal programs that didn’t actually meet the people’s needs.
Instead, the cost of doing business and the price of individual opportunity went up. The last eight years saw dramatic federal overreach perpetrated by bullish central planners.
But all is not lost. In recent years, the states have been a beachhead in the battle to make government work. Ultimately, we can make government work for the people if we think about what the government is meant to do, instead of just checking off boxes and filling openings simply because they’re there.
In his book Breakout, former Speaker of the House and Trump adviser Newt Gingrich calls on politicians to be pioneers of the future rather than prison guards of the past. Instead of updating or tinkering with antiquated legislation, we need to think about what we need for the future and then legislate for that.
Trump is a successful businessman and strong executive who billed himself as a turnaround expert. It appears he will employ that type of decision-making when it comes to making the government accountable to the people and pushing decision-making back to the states.
What’s more, Trump was elected because of his promise to shake Washington to its core and “drain the swamp.” For far too long, the federal government has expanded, to the point that its bloated inefficiencies are rampant.
For quite some time, the federal government has not been executing things with intention. But there is a solution.
There are 50 examples for how to offer government services and provide economic security for all while respecting and protecting hard-working taxpayers. President-elect Trump and the incoming executive branch need look no further than the states for many examples of what to do, how to cut taxes, reduce spending, decrease regulation and increase opportunity.
For the first time in a very long time, someone entering the Oval Office isn’t beholden to anyone. That creates a real opportunity for significant change, in a good way.
The Trump administration has a chance to roll back the bureaucracy and red tape that has strangled businesses, people and organizations for years — even if that means limiting opportunities to work in the administration. The president-elect can create something different, unique and successful.
Rather than putting temporary Bandaids on problems, the federal government and those working within it, Trump should seek to find real solutions. We can’t resist change. It is what the majority of people in our country demanded on Election Day.
The new administration has one chance to shake up the status quo in Washington. Now it’s Trump’s job to make sure the Washington culture doesn’t change him and prevent him from being the bull in the china shop he was meant to be.
Lisa Nelson is CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
